Pages

Monday, December 19, 2011

i know, i know.... i did say i won't spend too much on gowns and pronovias isn't exactly cheap but i bought my gown during a holiday sale so it's still cheap...in fact, combining the price of both my maggie sottero (civil wedding gown) and pronovias (for the church gown) are still cheaper than getting one gown from cecilio abad or veluz......actually almost half the price of what cecilio abad would ask and around 1/3 the price of veluz gowns...... which means i still have money for the surprise wedding gift i want to give the h2b and with that i'm really proud of myself! i mean, not only did i got them on sale but both gowns are fabulous too! can't wait to walk down the aisle and show them off, lol.....

anyway, so that picture there is where i bought my church wedding gown (van cleve wedding pavillon in paoli).... i have been going back and forth to that shop for three times and every time i would try different pronovias gowns...... but even after all those gowns, i keep coming back to the gown i tried on during my first visit, which is the gown i bought last saturday, december 18....on my birthday (it was their last day of sale last saturday)....

the other update i want to share is we finally have a wedding coordinator in the philippines.... we have officially booked them last december 13...... like i mentioned on my previous blogs, we need more than an OTD (on-the-day wedding coordination), we need partial coordination.... specially since i can't go home to the philippines next year anymore because i just switched jobs..... we need someone to run errands for us since the only time we can go home to the philippines is probably a week before the wedding.......

we also received the "yes" of all our entourage (got the last two just last saturday).... so it's going to be 5 from my side (1 bridesmaids, 1 maid of honor, 2 groomsmen & ring bearer..although 1 of my groomsmen is 50-50 *sad*) and 6 from the h2b's side (his best man, his 2 nephews, twin nieces & his nephew's 3-yr-old daughter)......so excited!

we also already applied for a wedding license in cape may last december 5.... we had to apply for wedding license in cape may because none of us lives in new jersey (we're both from PA).... it was surreal when we were inside Cape May's city hall, sitting infront of the registrar while we answer her questions for the wedding license..... its just different kind of happy feeling..... it's like, yes, this is it, i am getting married and i am not dreaming..... lol, sorry i'm being melodramatic again...

anyway, what else?oh, and last december 18 was my last birthday as m.c.....because on my next birthday i will be m.n..... nope, no dashing.... i have thought about that, and for practicality and my sanity's sake i decided to just change my name to my husband's..... i'll blog about that soon....

Sunday, December 4, 2011

bridesmaids dresses
the first half of my female ento already had their fitting 2 weeks ago, that's november 19, saturday, the same date that i went to new york to watch the parokya ni edgar concert.... because im not around on that date and that's the only date my 2 bridesmaids are available and since it's the h2b's side of the family, it was the h2b who accompanied them to the store.... they survived, except for one slight confusion with the wedding dates, lol........the store needed to attach my bridesmaids' orders on my account but they can't find my record and it's because when i bought my gown with them we haven't formally booked our venue yet and what we know is we're already sold on the may 19 date and that's what i put on my file at the gown store..... problem is when we were in the process of paying the deposit for our reception venue we had to change it to may 12 because we want to book rooms at peter shields too for the bridal entourage and some family members but all rooms for may 19 are already taken......

so that's one miscommunication...the other issue is i told the h2b not to tell the store the real wedding date and just tell them that it's one week before (may 5).... i have heard horror stories about bridesmaid gowns not being ready in time for the wedding (alterations are wrong, or there are missing pieces, etc) so i thought lying about the wedding date and having a week buffer isn't a big deal.... so anyway, the h2b forgot to give a heads-up to the bridesmaids that we'll lie about the wedding date so when they heard may 5th they all started to get worried.... only when they all came out from the store and are in the parking lot did the h2b explained what the real deal is, lol.....
now, for the other half of my ento, the fitting wasn't done until yesterday, dec 3.... in my ideal world i really want all my bridesmaids to have their gown fitting before thanksgiving because i was worried that since there are too many holidays coming, the store might need 4 months instead of 3..... but hey, we're all busy and they can't just drop whatever plans they have just because of the gown fitting so dec 3 is fine with me... we were told the gowns might be ready by march and that still gives us plenty of time....

now, what i mentioned, so far, is just for the civil wedding..... i still haven't found a shop to order my female ento's gown for our church wedding in the philippines.... i really like to get ammon velasco because he has the styles i want but until now he hasn't replied to my emails yet....i've contacted zandra lim and shirly lustado too but gawd, they are just too expensive.... they are 4k and 5k per gown..... i really just want to get a divisoria gown for my entourage so it would be cheaper, the problem is i want someone that has online presence so we could just easily send photos of the design and how the gowns looks like and it would be easy to get updates too... i wish i can go home to the philippines to scout for bridesmaid gowns myself but i just switched jobs and i cant just take leaves off.....

emcee
i'm so happy we got her... no names for now, for privacy and because i still get paranoid whenever i would remember that horror story from another w@w about what someone did to their suppliers.... but anyway, so yeah, we already booked her and paid our deposit last nov 22....

coordinators
for the civil wedding, i asked a friend of mine if she could be our on-the-day wedding coordinator.... i actually just need someone to oversee the decoration for the ceremony.... the decorations i have in mind involves shepherds hook and yards and yards of tulle and some other hanging decorations....and while i already have some guy friends and people from the rentals (where we rented chairs and arbor) to help in decorating i still need someone to ensure the proper execution, lol.... plus we're bringing in extra arbor and we also need to decorate that and it would also be nice to have someone who could help us uncollapse and dispose that arbor into our car or someone's car after the photo formals....
as to the coordinator for the philippines, we want partial coordination....while im already 80% done booking the suppliers, we still need someone to book the hotel for preps, scout for shops for my female ento's gown and to help us with some other paper work so instead of just getting the OTD (on-the-day) coordinator package we decided to get the partial coordination package...... we already have one in mind but i decided to get the same coordinator my friend jefferly got because my first choice took a month to reply to my emails...... we contacted the 2nd choice and they reply to emails which is a biggie for me but we're still waiting for the contract and until we have the contract and until we paid the deposit i can't really claim that we already have a wedding coordinator....

photographer
we had to switch photographers because we want someone who's familiar and have already handled a wedding at peter shields.... we might still keep the old photographer, though, for our engagement shoots...we still have 3 seasons to go! (winter, spring, summer)....

we started having second thoughts about whether or not we should get a back-up photographer for the civil wedding when we found out about our back-up's preferred rate.... the cost of tiny things are just all piling up and it's starting to overwhelm us...... add the fact that we need to book our flights to the philippines soon so we could get better rates... and we're not just paying for both of us but for four other people as well! que horror! so we really need to start focusing on the needs and minimize the wants..... plus we still want to have money left for the honeymoon.... the h2b is big on honeymoon....he said married life is tough and a couple should have a very nice honeymoon so that when the going gets tough you have some very good memories to look back to to keep you going..... i agree....